Hot L.A. market of ‘Selling Sunset’
Bold homes, brazen realtors star in Season 3 on Netflix,
You don’t have to be beautiful, sexy and dressed to kill to sell Hollywood’s equally beautiful, sexy and staged-to-thrill luxury homes.
“But it certainly doesn’t hurt,” says Jason Oppenheim, whose “kick-a--” agents are all that — and more. “That’s why we have the TV show.”
The hot Netflix reality series “Selling Sunset” reveals how some of Los Angeles’s priciest properties are bought and sold.
“Anyone who’s buying or selling in the Sunset Strip and the Hollywood Hills calls us,” according to Jason. He and identical twin brother Brett own real estate brokerage the Oppenheim Group and count Orlando Bloom, Ellen DeGeneres and Jennifer Lopez among their clients.
The Netflix cameras also follow the agency’s female reps through heartbreak, weddings, divorces and other domestic crises.
Season 3, which premieres Aug. 7, promises more drama, big-budget abodes and wow-worthy wardrobes.
In Hollywood’s cutthroat market, however, “style may get you in the front door but trust me, it’s not going to close the deal,” said realtor Christine Quinn, who’s heard complaining about the number of “bitches in this office.”
“To sell homes like these you have to be at the top of your game,” Quinn said in Season 1, which dropped in March, followed by Season 2 in May.
In a phone interview with the Star, Oppenheim agency president Jason listed four necessary work attributes: “experience, hard work, intelligence and creativity.” With elite clients ranging from celebrities to CEOs, his team members are also “very strong and charismatic,” he added.
Jason himself set a Sunset Strip record with the $35.5-million (U.S.) sale of a home with a glass elevator, 175-foot pool with cascading waterfall and a 15-foot, rotating, outdoor TV that rises out of the ground.
Another over-the-top retreat, currently listed for $11.5 million, has a six-room master suite and multiple main-level entertainment spaces that flow to an outdoor oasis overlooking downtown L.A.
Season 3 follows agent Davina Potratz’s continuing hunt for a buyer for an 18,000-square-foot Beverly Hills estate which, at $75 million, is the agency’s highest-priced residential listing. With a 2.5 or three per cent sales commission, she stands to make as much as $2 million.
Killer, competitive instincts always threaten and former soap star Chrishell Stause tips off viewers: “At the end of the day, we are all competing for that one big commission that could change everything.” Season 2 newcomer Amanza Smith told the Star that colleague Christine is “one of the more catty and loose-lipped” agents in the office. “You don’t let Christine get on your bad side, let’s put it that way,” she said, adding her friend is “also very sweet.”
Ultimately, “we’re there to work,” said Smith, an interior designer and home stager who joined the cast last year after getting her real estate licence.
As a single mom with two kids, Smith said she brings “a different dynamic to the show.”
A former model and longtime friend of agency colleague Mary Fitzgerald and Jason, Smith she grew up “very poor” with an early interest in DIY and decorating.
She’s come a long way, she said, but “in my head I’m still the little girl living in a trailer in Indiana, and I’m still climbing.” When people call her “down to earth,” she added, “that’s a compliment.”
And although she’s a multiskilled professional who describes herself as “cool and laidback,” Smith said holding back emotions in front of the cameras can be hard.
“There were times when we were filming and I was just holding back the tears,” she recalled of her upset over custody issues with her ex.
Jason, who worked as a lawyer before founding the brokerage in 2013, describes working in L.A.’s luxury real estate market “the best job in the world” because “you get to be yourself” and be around “great, fun people.”
He added that Toronto fans are among the biggest followers of his Instagram account.
“Selling Sunset” has been good for business, he added. With the Oppenheim Group’s sales growing every year — currently topping $250 million — the TV show “has added fuel to the fire, without a doubt,” he said.